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RECIPES

Want to avoid getting sick this winter?
Keep your immune system up and running by making sure your diet is full of essential vitamins and minerals. One of the best ways to accomplish this is with a variety of fruit in your diet. Fruit is full of important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that are great for keeping your body healthy. But what do you do if fresh fruit isn’t always available?
Once winter rolls around, fruit seems to take the back burner in our everyday diet. It can be hard to find fresh fruit in a cold environment like Minnesota, but there are ways to still get the fruit you need.

The wind blows the cranberries to one side of the marsh at Glacial Lake Cranberries in Wisconsin Rapids. (Photos by Pamela O’Meara)

Wisconsin’s state fruit is a must-have holiday ingredient
Ever since I met up with my former college roommate in Cape Cod several years ago and we went to a cranberry festival, I’ve wondered how the tart red berries are grown, harvested and processed both in Cape Cod and Wisconsin, which grows even more cranberries.
Last month, I learned the answers when I visited part of the 50-mile Cranberry Highway in central Wisconsin. The state grows about 60 percent of the nation’s and the world’s cranberries.

"This is my family's all-time favorite pumpkin recipe," Seivert says -- and it was the 2014 contest winner as well!
1st Place winner in the 2014 Savor the Season Lillie Newspapers holiday recipe contest

This pie is adaptable through the seasons. Try gooseberries cut in half or chopped rhubarb in season, or simply freeze fresh cranberries for a later treat!
3rd Place winner in the 2014 Savor the Season Lillie Newspapers holiday recipe contest

We've learned over the years to expect top-notch recipes from Sandy Andersen, and here's yet another! Andersen says her family enjoys this every Christmas morning, topping it with butter, syrup or whipped cream according to taste.

Looking festive and seasonal with pecans and pomegranate, this salad can be stretched by adding more greens. Some of our judges said the cayenne and ground pepper "snuck up" on them, but others found the heat just the right accent to spark up a holiday meal.

In Linda Triplett's circles, she's famous for this recipe, which, amazingly, she created the first time she tried making cherry pie. "I just couldn't bring myself to pour the cherry filling from a can into a pie crust and call it my own," she explains. The key: whole tart cherries give it a fresh taste even though they're canned. Though the recipe has been "top secret" until now, it was among the top finishers in our contest -- and now the secret's out!